Handheld Addict

Saturday, November 29, 2008

PSP - Matthew Good Live at Massey Hall

So I picked up Matthew Good Live at Massey Hall today at Wal-Mart. I was surprised it was there, and that it was a lot cheaper than what I thought was the cheapest price at Future Shop-- $15.00 for the 2 CD set. Comparted to $17.00 at HMV. But at Wal-Mart it was less than $13.00! Nice! If Future Shop hadn't been out of stock, I'd have missed out on some (admittedly, small) savings. Still, savings is savings, y'know?

As soon as I had a chance, I finally got home & ripped the 2 CDs into mp3 format to put on my PSP and Sandisk Sansa E280 8GB mp3 player. What I really like about listening to music on my PSP is that it's nearly gapless playback, which is usually important for live albums, and usually VERY important for Pink Floyd albums. There is a SLIGHT gap, but normally it's so small as to be unnoticible by me unless I'm looking for it. My E280, while it's a more dedicated music player, put a lot more of a gap between songs. It actually wrecks listening to Floyd songs, which is a real downer.

As I was transferring the files to my PSP, I was thinking, the last few CDs I bought (I don't buy very much music because there are few albums I consider worth it) I actually haven't listened to them as CDs... that is, popped the CD in a CD player & listened to them that way. It's weird, but it's just so convenient to listen to them as mp3 files. So why do I buy CDs at all? Because I know that my CDs won't just stop working one day out of the blue for no reason at all. DRM files that have no physical copies only work at the whim of the "license holder", like Sony DRM games I paid REAL money for that one day decided to stop working on my PSP. Buying non-physical download-only content from incompetent sellers like Sony or iTunes is just like burning your money in the fireplace. It's only a matter of time, but you WILL be burned by them screwing up & not working.

PSP volume is one of the biggest drawbacks for it as a music player, like many Sony players, it's not very loud. The sound quality is pretty good though. There are other problems with PSP music features, like lack of on-the-go playlist. And it's big & bulky. Honestly I use my E280 a lot more when I'm out. But add the other media functions to the picture, and the PSP is still a great all-in-one device.

2 comments:

Hey I don't know if this is too late, but for your Sansa, there is a cure to the gaps. Search google for "rockbox" they have a sansa port and all kinds of neat apps and games to complement the gapless playback.